So Many Souls, So Little Time-Right, Sonic?
by Jay Puma
Summary: After Tails and Eggman go missing, suddenly everyone starts disappearing, until Sonic sees his own brother Manic dragged into the computer by something... It's up to the unlikely pair of Sonic and Shadow to free everyone from the nightmarish program before HE finds them... R&R please
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, guys," Sonic wondered aloud to his housemates: Manic, Silver, and Shadow, the latter having his same "I don't care" look on him. "Hey... has Tails stopped by today?"

"Uh, no, bro," Manic said. "Was he supposed to?"

"Um, well... he stops by occasionally, but I haven't exactly heard from him lately." The blue hedgehog scratched his forehead, a little suspicious. "I'm a bit worried about him."

"I'm sure he's okay, Sonic," Silver assured, smiling at him with his honey-amber eyes. It was surprising that Silver wasn't making a snarky comment towards the fox, but it was nice to see a change of attitude in the young time traveller.

The blue hedgehog went outside and started jogging up the street, keeping an eye out for Tails. As he passed the houses, he could see his neighbors up and about; Espio was tossing pellets into his koi pond, Cream and Cheese were tending to their rose bushes and waved as he passed by, and Blaze was reading a book on her front porch. If he went the other way past his house he would pass by Knuckles, Rouge, and Amy.

"Hey, Sonic," Blaze said, making the hog backtrack so that he could face her squarely. "Have you seen Tails recently?"

"No, I haven't. Have any idea where he might be?"

"The last time I saw him he was coming back from your house," she said, beginning to look concerned. "When did you see him last?"

"He stopped by asking if I wanted to play with him. Apparently, somebody gave him a new game or something and he wanted to play it with me."

"Oh," she said, starting to go back to her book. "Well, maybe he's cooped up in his house playing it."

"Yeah, maybe," he said, starting off again. The more he thought about it though, Tails wouldn't be _that _bonkers over some new game without telling anybody about it. Usually, he'd call Sonic if the game was great, or stop by and ask if they could go to the game store downtown to sell it. But it had been a few days since he'd told him about the game.

Sonic knocked on the door. "Tails? Hey, Tails! You in there?" The door was unlocked, so Sonic pushed it open. The little fox wasn't in the front room...or the kitchen...or the garage... or in his shed in his backyard where he tinkered on little gadgets. The blue hedgehog poked his head into the computer room. Empty, too. But the computer was on, sleeping.

Tails was very particular about how his machines were treated, he always made sure to make sure his computers and such were off when he was done using them. Leaving one on was sort of out of character for the little genius. Wondering how long the computer had been on, Sonic waved the mouse back and forth.

The screen was normal, just showing the desktop littered with icons. On the bar on the bottom of the screen, a Word Doc was opened. He clicked it open, and a message met his eyes.

"SONIC HELP! I don't have much time, he's got me- he's got- HELP!

"T"

What was going on? Did he only get to type this much before...

"Ugh, Eggman!" Sonic growled, standing up out of the chair. "Only he would stoop so low!" He hustled over back to the house, and grabbed everyone's attention.

"Guys, I think Eggman kidnapped Tails!"

"Aw, no way, bro!" Manic said, standing up, along with Silver, who was shocked. Shadow turned his head, looking surprised. "That evil creep!"

"What's worse is that he nabbed 'im in his own _house," _Sonic growled, clenching his fist. "We gotta go get 'im, and fast!"

"Sonic," Shadow protested. "I don't think the doctor did it."

Sonic glared at the dark hedgehog. "Oh yeah, Mr. I-don't-care? Why so?"

"I haven't heard from Dr. Eggman in weeks. And if he _had _kidnapped Tails, then how come no one noticed an attack on his house? Was there any indication of a breaking and entering at all?"

Sonic fumed. "Whatever! Manic, Silv, c'mon!"

"Yo, bro... you know, Robotnik always has something else in mind, you know? If he wanted you to know Tails was kidnapped, he would have made a... you know, a statement or something."

"_Manic..." _The blue hedgehog grumbled. He looked hard into the yellow-eyed time-traveler. "Are you coming with me or _not?"_

Silver gave a little nod and followed Sonic out. As they went down the street, Shadow's phone buzzed, and he glanced at the message.

* * *

As soon as Silver and Sonic came in, puzzled/disappointed and frustrated, respectively, Shadow commented, "No sign of him, right?"

"What do you know, Shadow?" Sonic barked. "Are you on that side of the fence now?"

"No. As soon as you two left, I got this,"- Shadow started to pull up the message. Manic's face was pale.

"Bro... you gotta see this, it's way creepy, man." The black hedgehog showed the other two the message.

"SOMEONE HELP ME! THAT HORRID LITTLE HEDGEHOG HAS GON-"

"Eggman sent this to you?" Silver wondered. "And Sonic... what did you do to him?"

"Nothing. Guys, we were out the door on the way to rescue Tails..." Sonic started to look a little unnerved. "All the Badniks were gone, and... the computer was on, too, like at Tails' house..."

"Did you send 'im something, bro?"

"No, no way, I just send little pranks via posts on his page... I..."

"What other "horrid little hedgehog" could he be talking about?" Silver wondered, looking at the other three hedgehogs.

"Not me, man," Manic said, raising his hands. "I don't get involved in all the crazy things you guys get into to with Robotnik or Eggman or whatever he is now."

"I don't reply to any messages the doctor sends me," Shadow said, deleting the message on the phone.

"_You _haven't done anything to him, have you, Silver?"

"Maybe he just _thought _it was you, bro," Manic thought. "You know, 'cause maybe he was doing something and then, like, I dunno somebody stopped him."

"Well, there wasn't any sign of a definite plot in mind when we checked out the HQ," Silver mumbled. "No sign of attack or break in either."

"And the 'message sent' screen was up on his monitor," Sonic added. "Guys, who would kidnap Tails _and _Eggman?"

"I don't get it either..."

* * *

On Dr. Eggman's monitor, a text box for the command input opened, and the computer began typing:

HE HE HE HE HE

HE HE HE HE HE

HE HE HE HE HE

… THE GAME BEGINS...


	2. Chapter 2

"Don't worry, hedgehogs," Vector the Crocodile assured, giving them a thumbs up. "Team Chaotix is on the case!" Sonic, Manic and Silver were standing in front of him and Espio...

"Hey, where's Charmy?" Sonic wondered, scratching his head. "Did he go missing, too?"

"Well, he found some sort of computer game in Tails' PC, so he wanted to play it," the head detective explained. "I doubt a computer game counts as evidence against a kidnapping, Sonic."

Silver's ears perked up, and he mumbled, "No...it couldn't be..."

"What's up, Silver?" Sonic asked, and the hedgehog snapped to attention, trying to hide something. "Uh, lemme guess, _paradox, _right? Can't tell anybody about it? Pft, gee, you're some help."

"Well... I don't know..." the young hedgehog whispered, big ears drooping.

"Hey, man, what's that have to do with why he's missing?" Manic wondered.

"That was the last time we saw him, guys. And I thought I'd never say this, but, it's kinda weird without him to annoy the crap outta me and Espio."

"But that aside," the chameleon said, "we'll investigate Tails' disappearance for you, Sonic. We're all a little worried about him."

"Thanks guys... I appreciate it."

"Hey, Sonic," Vector coughed, "uh, do us a favor, will ya? Keep your brother in check, okay?"The three hogs left the Chaotix house and started to head home.

"Man, this stuff's getting freaky, bro," Manic said, then stifled a yawn. "Charmy and Tails, they're like six and eight, right?"

"Manic..." Sonic grumbled.

"What if we got a town _pedobear, _mannn?" He started making corny ghost howls, and Sonic clenched his fist. The hedgehog took it out on opening the door instead of driving into his brother's face.

"I swear, Manic, this isn't funny at all. Tails and now Charmy. That's _two _of our friends within two days."

Manic drooped his green ears in shame. "Aw, man, I'm..I'm sorry, bro..."

Sonic sighed, "No, it's fine, Manic... I'm just really worried about Tails." Then the two hogs noticed a shaky Silver walk into his room and close the door. He'd acted shifty ever since Vector had mentioned Charmy had picked up a computer game and disappeared.

But then again, with all those silly little stories on the internet _now,- _the creepy-spaghetti or whatever- and Silver's gullible nature, he probably thought some creepy guy snatched up both Charmy and Tails for some sort of sadistic ritual.

Anyway, Shadow came out of his room, and yawned. "Well, well, well," Sonic remarked, "look who finally woke up. You think with all the sleeping he did, he'd be sick of it."

The dark hedgehog puffed. "Shut it... When's the last time you heard from Knuckles?"

"He was "going out."" Everybody knew what that _really _meant: Knuckles and Rouge were hanging out, either at her place or his. They could cover up the relationship with heated insults, but there was no hiding it. "That was yesterday, too. Before Tails went missing."

"Well, Tails could've gone missing between when he last came over and when you went over to his house, but sure. You're pretty active in your social life aren't you? Have you heard from either of them since?"

Sonic's eyes widened as he tried to remember when. Without much ado, he sped off towards Knuckles' house, and there was no sign of the echidna. The blue hedgehog emerged from the house after minutes of frantic searching to find Shadow outside.

"No luck?" Sonic panted. The black hedgehog shook his head_. "Anything?"_

"The computer was on," he admitted, and looked away, in thought. "That's something, right? Tails' was on, Dr. Eggman's was on, and Charmy ran off playing something on the computer, right?"

"What... what'd you think? What do we-"

"What do _you _do?" Shadow corrected, narrowing his eyes. "Honestly, Sonic, I don't know_ what_ to tell you.I don't know as much about computer files and what they can or can't do. I only know enough to find what I need, and that's all. I don't know if the computer on even means _anything _besides people too lazy to remember to turn them off before they join _you _on some save-the-world adventure. And _I'm not helping you."_

"Well,_ fine then,_ I'll remember that when whatever's out there snatches _you _up," Sonic grumbled as the loner stalked away. Computers... the only other person that might know enough about computers was...

Sonic tapped on Silver's door. "Hey, Silver! Can I talk to you for a second?" On the fourth knock the door opened from the momentum of the force. The room was empty, most of Silver's things still there, but where Silver's laptop was supposed to be was a note.

Hey Sonic.

Don't worry about me; I'm going home. Sorry for leaving like this, but I'm afraid if I stay around, I might screw up events. I _really _want to help, but I just can't.

Sonic, listen. I know I listen to MCP and all, but you have to_ trust _me on this.

I think whatever took Tails and Charmy is some sort of computer file, I don't know, maybe like a trojan that triggers some sort of teleportation, or something _really _messed up.

Whatever you do, Sonic, **DON'T RUN THE DISC.**

_Silver_

Sonic held the note firmly, and started to feel a sort of anxiety as he reread the final line. The disc. Charmy had picked up a disc at Tails' house that was in the computer. Maybe Eggman had a disc in his computer too, and Rouge found it, and she and Knuckles...

_**DON'T RUN THE DISC.**_

Well, Silver was naive and maybe that creepy-taco crap got to him and he was really frightened by it and he just had to go home...but then again... that teleportation theory seemed pretty sound, too. Maybe someone else was doing this besides Eggman.

* * *

Before night fell, Sonic walked up to Neo Metal Sonic with a very serious look. "Hey, Metal."

"Hey," the android reluctantly replied. "Is this about Tails going missing? I didn't do it."

"I didn't think so," the hedgehog said with a sigh. "Look, Eggman went missing too, right?"

"Like I care," Metal buzzed. "But yeah. I remember that. He sent out a distress signal, I thought you had something to do with it, since you're the only "horrid little hedgehog" he seems to get riled up about. He sent it to all the Badniks, and their signals said the point of origin, being the main computer room, was completely empty. "

"Hey... do running computers mean anything? Everyone who went missing had their computers on." The machinery of the copy buzzed and hummed for a while, then it abruptly stopped, like a computer running something. He beeped and then made a sighing noise.

"No, I'm not sure how that ties to kidnapping, Sonic. Perhaps they were sent something that distracts them for a while, and then maybe whoever's behind it sneaks up on them."

"Eggman said a hedgehog did it."

"Or a hedgehog-shaped creature," Metal added.

"A Mobian, anyway," he went on, "so who else thinks Eggman-"

A shrill shriek pierced the air, and Sonic's heart skipped a beat when he realized who it was. He sped off, and then heard Metal's engines whirr behind him. "I'll go around the back," he informed, flying ahead.

Sonic kicked the door to Amy's place down and rushed down the hall, finding a computer screen flickering with red static, and the swivel chair spinning wildly. Metal entered soon after, informing his counterpart that no one had come out, and nobody else was in there besides them.


	3. Chapter 3

The situation was becoming dire. Sonic's neighborhood was rapidly depopulating soon after Amy's disappearance: Vector, Blaze, Espio. Omega and Metal Sonic's computer minds crashed. Soon, it was just scared little Cream and Cheese, Sonic, Shadow and Manic. Cream knocked on the door, crying when "Miss Blaze went missing, Mister Sonic! Miss Amy and-and- everybody's gone, Mister Sonic!" She wept and rubbed her eyes, and Sonic picked up the scared little rabbit up gingerly.

"Oh, Cream.. I'm sorry.. You can stay with me n' Manic until I figure out what's happened to all our friends, okay? We'll take care of you."

Her big brown eyes grew wide. "D-Did Mr. Silver disappear too?"

"No, no, no; he just went back to the future. I'm sure he's okay."

Cream and Cheese curled up together with Sonic, who could barely go to sleep, knowing that all but a few of his friends were gone, and that he had failed to stop whoever had taken them away. He didn't even know _what _had taken them. All he knew was that they'd been on their computers moments before.

As Cream and her chao played in the backyard, the hedgehog brothers sat down to pool their thoughts together. "You know, bro, this is starting to sound like those spooky monitor-campfire stories fern-head was getting into to scare himself silly," Manic commented. "What if that _Skinnyman _or _Ben the Killer _is snatching people up?"

"Then why are we still here? How come it hasn't gotten Cream? This thing's gotta be a computer whiz: our robot frenemies are broken, too. It's something with _computers, _Manic."

"I know I was suggesting silly campfire story monsters, bro, but you and I use the computer, too. _We _haven't gotten snatched up."

"It's _gotta_ be something with the computers. I mean, Cream and Cheese play outside all day; Vanilla's very skeptical about computers. She rarely uses it at all. But _everybody else _used a computer before they went missing."

"You know, bro, " Manic said, making a quick glance into the house before continuing, "you haven't asked _Mr. Grumpy Quills _for ideas, bro."

Sonic puffed, rolling his eyes. _"He's _not going to help. He made that _perfectly clear."_

"Wouldn't hurt to try, bro," the green hedgehog said as he stood up and went inside, and hopped on the computer. Where _was _Shadow, anyway? Not in the house anyway, but with everyone in the neighborhood practically gone, who was there to see?

For a few minutes, our blue hero watched Cream and Cheese play around for a bit, even getting up and joining in for a while. They kicked around a red rubber ball, playing soccer for a bit, Sonic going easy on the little bunny. The sun set and Cream picked up the ball and announced she had to go home then. Her mother would be home and making dinner, and the hedgehog gave the girl a reassuring pat on the head before letting her run out of the gate and across the street.

Sonic smile disappeared when he heard his brother scream. He ran in, to find Manic desperately hanging on to the chair while the rest of him was being _sucked into _the monitor.

_"Manic!" _Sonic grabbed a hold of his brother's arms, yanking him back as hard as he could. Whatever was dragging him in, it was strong. Sonic's green triplet cried.

_"Sonic! Sonic, you gotta stop this thing!" _he screamed.

_"Don't let go of me, Manic!"_

_ "Sonic, they're in the computer- in the GAME!" _His brother's grip was loosening.

_"Mannic, don't LET GO!"_

_ "Sonic, he won't stop- you gotta stop him- he's a MONSTER!"_

The force was too strong for Sonic. In anguish, the hedgehog watched his brother being dragged into the screen, screaming. Before Manic was totally engulfed by the static, Sonic tried to reach back in, only to hit the glass of the monitor.

_"MAAANNNNNNNIICCCCCCC!"_

* * *

Sonic tried desperately to figure out how to get his brother out of the computer, tried to turn the computer on, anything that might bring Manic back. He was frantically pressing buttons, trying all the things he could think of: unplug and replug the CPU, hold down the power button... but who was he kidding? He was no Tails. He was on the computer as much as anyone else, but he wasn't as knowledgeable about them to have them working when they started acting funny.

At least Sonic knew what was going on: Something in the computer trapped all of his friends inside, a game, Manic had said. And the mastermind was a "him." Essentially, if Eggman was trying to act the victim only to be the real mastermind, like many a time before, Sonic's triplet brother's statement made sense.

Then again... If it was an Eggman plot, why did Metal Sonic crash?

The front door banged open, and a wide-eyed Shadow, who twitched now and then, stumbled into the house, clutching his white patch of fur. Sonic slowly approached where the dark hedgehog had slumped against the back of the couch.

"I...I have just seen the most horrifying thing..." he mumbled before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Manic got sucked into the computer," Sonic whispered.

"We're all alone here," Shadow muttered. "Everybody's... inside." They nodded together for a moment, then the black one winced.

"What happened? Where- _who-"_

"The hedgehog that lived at the end of the street," he said. "Gray hedgehog, you've seen her before. I was going to visit her. She was playing a game on the computer"- Sonic winced- "I wasn't paying much attention to it. Then she screamed, and then _he _grabbed her and yanked her inside. I almost... I almost had her..." The blue hedgehog noticed that his rival's far eye was wet, and a tear was bubbling on his cheek.

Under normal circumstances, Sonic would never let Shadow live it down. "Aw, man, _check this out! Shadow's crying! _What, what, what, was she like your _giiirrrllllllfrieeeennnnnnnnd? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" _

But he'd just lost someone he'd spent nearly a year with snuggled together in the womb of their mother. Who was he to judge?

"Did...did you see the thing that got her?"

"Yes," Shadow gulped. "Yes I did..." he shivered, and then, faced Sonic squarely, with the most grim stare he'd ever seen.

"It was _you."_


	4. Chapter 4

_"Me?" _Sonic said, bewildered."I-I-I was in-"

"Hear me out for a minute," Shadow said, raising his hand. "You know that whole ordeal we had when Eggman warped time and space, and there were _two _of you?"

"Of course." _That had been so weird..._

"Well... The thing I saw, looked like _you. _But _you _would never do what that _thing _did... That Sonic... it was... _awful."_

The black hedgehog began to give a description of the Sonic in the computer. Just like good old Sonic, besides, his black sclera and glowing red eyes that bled. A wicked grin across his cheeks, yellow sharp fangs. White gloves smeared with blood. He hadn't heard it speak, but they both began to have a feeling that the Sonic would sound and speak _exactly _like the real one.

"Oh...God..." Sonic breathed. "What am I going to do?"

"...what _are _we going to do?" Shadow mumbled after a while, and Sonic's ears perked up. "Yeah, I know..." he said, starting to get up, "I said I wouldn't help you. But that was before that Sonic-thing made this personal."

Sonic's eyebrows quirked. Maybe the hedgehog down the street really _was _his girlfriend. But he gave Shadow a curt nod. "All right." He pounded his fist into his other hand. "Let's go teach this Computer-Sonic some manners."

And as if a response, the DVD drive of the computer slid open. The hedgehogs eyed the gleaming silver disc inside, taking note of the black writing on it.

"SONIC-dot-EXE"

"Manic must have pocketed this at the Chaotix's place," Sonic said. "I bet this was the disc Tails brought to the house to show me-!" He put a hand to his forehead. "Oh, man- I could've _stopped _this."

"No time for regrets," Shadow said, picking up the disc and pocketing it. "I know how we can get inside of this. We just need to get to the doctor's computer." The hedgehog walked into his dark room and Sonic heard the all-too-familiar click of a loaded the armed hog stepped back into the light, Sonic didn't object. Against another Sonic, maybe a weapon was needed.

He made Shadow write a note to Cream and Vanilla as Sonic got ready. On a normal adventure, the hog would've run off without anything but a few chilidogs for the road, but... going inside a computer, a place Sonic wasn't too familiar with... he'd bring anything he could carry. The bloody Sonic's image in his head made him pack a first-aid kit, two of them. He hoped his friends weren't hurt, but... He grabbed a memento from his trip to Subspace, a Light Sword, hoping that would be enough. Five apples...no, he just dumped all the apples in the bowl into his backpack.

"Come on, Sonic," Shadow said, making the other snap his head up. His rival had a backpack of his own. Maybe he had some of his own food and bandages.

"Yeah, okay," he said. zipping it up and slinging it on his back. "Let's go."

* * *

Cream and her Cheese walked up the walkway to Mister Sonic, Mister Manic, Mister Silver and Mister Shadow's house. When she reached up to knock, she spotted a note and plucked it off the door.

Cream and Vanilla

We're going to find our friends. Please don't open anything you get on the computer until you hear from us. We don't want you to get in trouble like everyone else.

Don't worry about us. We'll be fine, and so will everybody else who's disappeared.

If Silver comes back, tell him we're going after the computer program called "SONIC-dot-EXE" Tell him everybody else has been kidnapped by it.

Please stay safe. Don't come after us. We don't know what we're up against.

Sonic

**Shadow**

* * *

"I take it you've done this before?" Sonic said as they pounded through the empty corridors of the doctor's base. No Badniks like last time he and Silver had run down these same hallways looking for Eggman with the intention to beat him, but now, the blue hedgehog just hoped there was still time...

"Yeah," Shadow said as he skated ahead. "The same computer."

"What do you think it wants?"

"I think it's a psychopath. And, it's _you, _so I think he's a he."

"That's _not me, _Shadow."

"I know he's not _you, _but, he _is." _They reached the main computer room, and Shadow walked in front of the keyboard. "Okay. As soon as I say so, jump into the center," he instructed, pointing. "And keep your guard up. I think he knows we're coming for him."

Sonic pulled out the Light Sword and readied himself. "Okay, do your thing, Shad."

The hedgehog slid the disc into the computer and started to pull things up on the computer. Suddenly, he slammed the edge of his hand down hard against the keyboard. The room shook, and the area above the center began glowing brightly.

"Now!" Shadow said, making sure Sonic went first before he followed and they were warped into the world of the Sonic-dot-exe. At first, blinding light with various screeching sounds stunned the hedgehogs as they were traveling into the game.

Sonic tumbled onto some grass, while Shadow landed a few feet ahead on his feet. The blue hedgehog and black one stood back to back, weapons at the ready.

"Shadow... this... this is Green Hill Zone."

Except it wasn't. Some odd, eerie music that might also come across as creepy was playing instead of that beautiful nostalgic tune. And the plane was level. Perfectly level. Nothing at all like the classic Sonic the Hedgehog game.

"I don't like this," Sonic added.

"Let's keep moving," the other suggested, taking a step ahead of the path, but then stopping. "Maybe not that way," he said, pointing his gun down the path, which Sonic winced at the sight.

Dead animals littered the pathway, bloody, gruesomely killed animals. Squirrels hanging from trees with their intestines spilling out. Birds with gouged out eyes. Beheaded rabbits.

"You think that...that other me did this?"

"No doubt. That grin on his face, and all the blood on him..." Shadow turned around, and started walking the other way. "We should try this way. If he has our friends, he probably wants us to go through hell to get them back."

They froze when they heard an echoing laugh, sounding like something out of a game, a distorted, repeated laugh, "AHA ha-ha-ha," like that. "What..." Sonic began to shiver.

AHA ha-ha-ha

AHA ha-ha-ha

The laughter seemed to come closer to them. From behind Sonic and Shadow, who exchanged glances of panic and anger and raced up the bloody path.

AHA ha-ha-ha

AHA ha-ha-ha...

Up the small slope, and they skidded to a stop at an applauding figure. Sonic clapped slowly, his eyes shut, as he rested against a tree. Sonic and Shadow backed away, bewildered.

"Hello, hello," the Sonic said, completely Sonic, same attitude and same voice, which made the Sonic beside Shadow clamp his hand over his throat to make sure he still had his voice. "Looks like you found your way in here. Nice going. I didn't think I was that smart."

"Sonic?" the other one echoed, stepping forward, but an extended arm from Shadow prevented him from going further.

"I'm Sonic. Sonic...the Executable File."

The hedgehog's eyes open as he met his guests' eye level. Red glowing dots against black. He curled his lips in a smile, revealing yellowed teeth. "But please, call me Sonic-dot-exe."

"The _computer file?" _The real Sonic stammered.

When Sonic-dot-exe chuckled, it was that AHA ha-ha-ha they were chased by. "Yeah. The one and only. Welcome to my world."

"You kidnapped my friends-"

"_Our _friends," the executable file corrected. "I _am _you, Sonic." The creepy Sonic began to approach the two hedgehogs. "And I didn't kidnap them. I invited them to play with me. They've all accepted their invitations. Silly hedgehogs. You're supposed to _open _your invites, not jump into them."

"Invites?" Shadow said, chest fur bristling. "You mean your disc?"

"You catch on fast, my cranky friend."

"If you're _Sonic _you should know that we aren't _friends," _he puffed.

"Aww... what's the matter, Fakey? Butthurt your sweet wittle _girrrlllllfriieeeennnd _got stolen and you couldn't save her?" Sonic chuckled wildly as Shadow growled.

"What did you do with them?" Sonic wondered. His bloody double smiled.

"We're in the middle of a game right now. Oooh! Tell ya what, let's make a deal. We'll play hide-and-seek. Our friends are hiding. And we're seeking, okay? You two are on one team, and I'm on the other.

"Whichever Sonic can find all of his friends first _wins. Deal?"_


	5. Chapter 5

Sonic-dot-exe held out his bloody hand to seal the deal. "C'mon, _me," _he said, "Whaddya say?" Shadow's red eye rested on the real Sonic before giving him a head shake meaning "Don't do it." The other was thinking the same thing. Once back-stabbed...

"I'm not like McNosehair, me," the executable file protested. "I promise no dirty tricks," and he cackled.

"But you're _not him," _Shadow spat, putting himself between the Sonics. "The real Sonic wouldn't snatch up his friends. You're not even a _hedgehog."_

Sonic-dot-exe flickered, and he smiled as his image became static. With an echoing AHA ha-ha-ha-ha, the file flickered away. The remaining hedgehogs faced each other. "Monster..." the dark one grumbled.

"Well, we tried going back last time, remember?" Sonic tried to piece the situation together. "He made us come up this hill. Let's try going back again; maybe we can find something."

When they came back to the starting point, they tried to see what lay ahead. "I can't see anything ahead at all," True Blue said, a little worried.

"Sonic... I think he _wants _us to go through this, this "game" of his. I don't think going that way will do any good."

"What? You _want us _to walk right into his traps?"

"No. I want to _run through_ them. I think that he gets a kick out of catching things, particularly things that _try _to run from him. If he's supposed to be _you, _then he must be fast enough to catch little animals like these,"- then he swallowed, "and our friends."

The puzzle came together when he thought about it. "You-You're right. Let's just keep running. Ready?" They crouched down.

_**"GO!"**_

They ran through past the tree Sonic-dot-exe had been against, then it flashed, changing into a fiery landscape, in which the laughter of the executable file echoed, and then-then he was _EVERYWHERE _and then, he could hear the laughter close behind-

_"Don't look back, Shadow!" _ Sonic called out to the hedgehog, a nose behind- always second-best, after all- _"Just keep running!"_

The level flashed away, and they skidded to a halt. No sign of him.

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

_"Well done. Well done. Not as slow as Tails was." _

"What did you do to Tails?!" Sonic screamed.

_"No, no, no. Not the _real _Tails, not _your _Tails. My Tails is up ahead." _The two hedgehogs turned ahead and their hearts stopped.

"...Is that..." Up ahead was an item TV, but inside was... _Tails? _Couldn't have been- no. His fur was gray, and he had only empty bloody eye sockets, that somehow seemed saddening. It flickered with red static, and to the blue hedgehog's horror, the fox opened his mouth.

"Please...*static*...help..."

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

The Tails trembled violently and pressed his hands up against the screen. "It's too late for me- _run. _He'll catch you- unless..." Tails jumped away from the edge and his ears pinned back. "AH! LEAVE ME_ ALONE_, YOU _MONSTER!"_

"Tails!" Sonic said, putting a hand up to the glass. "I'm not him, I swear! I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna find my friends, you, Knuckles and Amy and the rest-"

"_Amy?" _the poor fox perked up, echoing the last name. He crept to the screen again. "Are...Are you..?" Sonic moved a little to let the imprisoned Tails see Shadow behind him, and the fox gasped and pressed up on the screen again. "It _is you! Sonic! _The _real _Sonic!"A red tear streamed down the blackened boy's white cheek. "I'm so glad... glad I could see you. It's been so long, Sonic."

"What happened, Tails? Are you the same-"

"No, no! I was hacked in this by a guy named Kris- I mean...The real Tails, uh, the normal Tails isn't trapped yet."

"Trapped? Like you- do you have any idea what's going on, Tails?"

The fox's expression drooped, lowering his sightless gaze. "Oh yes..."he said, as if he was talking about a dead pet. "I... I know what's going on here, all right. More than anybody else imprisoned here. I'll tell you about it."

"Be quick," Shadow insisted. "We don't know how long everyone has-"

"This is a _game. He _is a game. You two are the players, he has to _wait on you," _the blackened Tails explained. "No game goes on without its players. You're in the gap between the saves."

"What about everyone else?" Sonic wondered. "Are they playing, too?"

"They're fine. The normal me has made groups with rules. They'll be okay... Just rest for a bit, and let me tell you what happened...

* * *

There was a guy named Kris who was an on-off fan of the Sonic games, you know, abandoning the fandom when a game sucked, coming back when it was brilliant... Well, he went into a pawn shop and bought an original _Sonic the Hedgehog _PC game. After one short play through, he immediately branded the game "crap" and decided to make it "better."

"What did he do?"

He hacked the game to make it so instead of Badniks you were fighting animals and gave Sonic the Spin Dash move. He was into those new bloody gory games, so they bled whenever Sonic ripped through them. Yeah, Sonic didn't like that either. But he didn't know what to do.

Kris kept adding things like bonus levels, and... I was the bonus. Sonic had to kill me, and he was heartbroken. He froze the game and asked Kris why. Kris thought Sonic was another hacker, so he joked with him, and he made the mistake of taunting Sonic, asking he was going to kill _his _friends, too.

A few gameplays later Sonic snapped, and he accepted the taunt. He traveled through e-mails and distributed himself to all of Kris' friends and _killed them. _No one else could tell what had killed them, and Kris was starting to worry. He opened Sonic's game and started playing through it. It's just like this, too.

At the end, Kris was killed in the real world, and Sonic dragged his soul into here, and he's trapped here, like us. Everybody who plays this game is tormented by that awful creature, either in here or out there. Every time someone plays the game, Sonic opens this box, and I'm the player for the first file. When I get out, I'm normal, until he catches me. I always think that... that someday the _real _Sonic would come and save me...

"And here he is," Tails said. "I've been in this bad place for so long I can't even trust my own eyes anymore... But, look, you'd better hurry. Sonic doesn't like waiting. He'll _cheat _to make you play the game. He's the controller of this world, and if you sit idle talking to me, he might make you go forward."

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

The Tails began to panic. _"Hurry! _If you don't run to the next level, he'll get you! _Go!" _Shadow went ahead, but Sonic took two steps away, before running back and opening the item box, a normal-looking Tails popping out, looking confused.

"_C'mon," _Sonic insisted, "I won't let that messed-up me mess with you anymore!"

"But... b-but-"

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

Both Mobians darted after Shadow without another word. A few feet ahead, the blackness flashed away to reveal a Bad Future Stardust Speedway sky with a Scrap Brain Zone path. The dark hedgehog widened his eyes at the Tails trailing behind the blue hedgehog.

"Sonic... what-"

"_What? _Real Tails or not he's my _pal, _and I'm not leaving him behind to that Bad Sonic!"

"But... Sonic," Miles insisted, "I'm just a part of this game. When you guys find your friends and go home, I'll still be trapped in here."

Sonic growled, frustrated, but was interrupted by the laughter of Sonic-dot-exe echoing throughout the level. Tails ducked behind his friend, shivering and whimpering.

"What's this place?" Shadow grumbled.

"It-It's called... "You Can't Run.""


	6. Chapter 6

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

""You Can't Run?"" Sonic and Shadow echoed, hearts beating faster. Tails nodded, beginning to cry, covering his ears to fend off the horrid laughter that tormented him for years on end.

"Get on my back, Tails," Sonic shouted over the dying laughter. "We're gonna run through-"

_"No, _Sonic!" The fox yanked on his friend's arm. "That's not it. Listen. Up ahead, Sonic appears, and Knuckles tried to fight him."

_"Knuckles?"_

_ "His _Knuckles! Everytime Sonic brings him back, Knuckles thinks he can beat him, but Sonic's _too fast. _That's why I can't... can't run away..." The fox started to cry again, and the blue hedgehog kneeled down and pushed away the hands that covered the boy's wet face.

"It's okay, Tails," Sonic promised. "I can beat him. I beat him last time, and I can beat him again. You'll see."

"Call me Miles," he sniffled back, rubbing his eye. "I've always been called Tails by that...that monster, and you two have the same voice, so, please, call me Miles."

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

"Please, don't do it Sonic! If you stop to fight him, you'll never find our friends, he'll get you, and he'll play with you forever, like everyone else! Like Amy and Espio and Blaze and the girl down the-"

"Do you know where she is?" Shadow whirled around and stared Miles down with a murderous glare. "Where is she? The hedgehog who lives down the street, did they find her yet?"

"N-no..." the fox said, which made Shadow was a hint of grief in the hedgehog's snarl, and the hedgehog clamped his eyes shut as that awful laugh echoed throughout the level, shook his head furiously and twisted away. The dark hedgehog sped off deeper into the level with a battle roar.

"Shadow, _wait!" _Sonic called, but he knew that even if those big black ears of his picked up the plea, he wouldn't hear a thing. The look on his face said everything. "What lies ahead, Miles?" he said to his friend. "Will Shadow be all right?"

"I don't know, Sonic," the fox whimpered. "All I know is that Knuckles tried to fight Sonic here and he couldn't, so he gave up and Sonic got him."

They could hear the laughter of that horrible hedgehog-file thing further ahead. "So where should we go then?"

"Here, Sonic." Miles began spinning his tails and lifted off the ground, offering his hand. "I'll fly you through here. If we fly over him, he can't catch us."

"You sure?"

"You can't jump as high as I can fly," he insisted. "I swear, this is the only way. Just, just don't look down until we make it." Sonic pumped for his friend's hand and clamped his eyes shut as they flew into the Bad Future sky. He wasn't afraid of heights. He was just afraid his eyes would wander down, and find that stubborn, desperate hedgehog snatched up by that awful version of him.

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

"Hang on, Sonic! We're almost there!"

"YOU _B$#%&^*%$D!"_ Sonic could hear Shadow scream.

AHA ha-ha-ha

"We made it, Sonic!" Tails' grip loosened and Sonic landed on his feet in the blackness. He wished he'd kept his eyes shut.

AHA ha-ha-ha

"_Knuckles, Knuckles, Knuckles. Such a knucklehead."_

The screen of the TV had been smashed and a Knuckles hung miserably from the unseen was bloody, grayed and anguished.

"_No matter how many times you hang yourself, buddy, you can't escape. You're in MY world now."_

AHA ha-ha-ha

"_Sneaky little faker, ain't he, Sonic?"_

"What?"

"_Shadow, of course. Calls me a nasty name and then just disappears."_

"Disappeared?" Sonic and Miles echoed, looking at each other.

"_All 'cause his girlfriend came here. Sheesh."_

"She didn't come here, _you _dragged her in here!" Sonic spat at the dark. "Just like you dragged in Amy and Manic!"

"_Oh right. I wonder what brother's up to."_

AHA ha-ha-ha

"_Better check up on them. Thanks for the reminder."_

AHA ha-ha-ha.

"He's gone," Miles said, turning to Sonic. "Sonic, do you really think that girl down the street was like, his girlfriend?" It _would _be a question Tails would ask.

"I've never seen him so worked up about anybody else," he admitted. "So what now? How many more stages are there?"

"One last stage... and then," Tails shivered. "Then it's Round Two."

"Round Two?"

"That's where all the players are trapped. Kris, Kyle, Tom, me, Eggman, Charmy, Knuckles, Rouge, Amy, Vector, Blaze, and Espio, and the girl down the street."

"Who're Kyle and Tom?"

"They're two friends. Kyle got a hold of the game and was one of the first that got trapped in here, and he was trying to warn Tom about this disc, sending him it and telling him to destroy it. But Tom played the game anyway."

"So they're trapped in here too? Along with everyone else?"

"It's too late for them, Sonic," Miles whimpered. "They've been in here for years now. Sonic can play with them forever and ever now."

Sonic suddenly realized what his buddy'd said. "Wait a minute; you said _the _disc?"

"Yeah. One disc."

"But- but, Tails' disc got snatched up by Charmy _after _Eggman went missing. And Rouge got a hold of Eggman's disc, and she and Knuckles played it. Manic pickpocketed Charmy's disc at the Chaotix_ before_ Vector and Espio went missing. Amy and Blaze and the girl down the street- how'd _they _get a copy?"

"Sonic sent out a disc to _all _your friends," he confessed. "A disc to Tails, a disc to Blaze, a disc to the Chaotix, a disc to Knuckles, a disc to Amy, and the disc for Silver got intercepted by Eggman since it was going to your house."

"How'd the other girl get a disc?"

"He changed his mind about inviting Shadow, so he wanted somebody else. I guess the disc meant for Shadow made it to the girl's house."

"How does he even do it? I mean, he's just a computer program, right?"

Miles' expression darkened and became gloomy. "He may be _just _a computer game... but he's also really, _really _messed up, Sonic. When he killed Kris' Amy... he really lost it. His rage gave him control over his game, and you've seen him go through computer monitors. I don't understand it though, Sonic," he started. "You're such a nice person. You'd give people second chances, wouldn't you, Sonic?"

True Blue started to think about it. Sonic-dot-exe was a game, and all his friends were part of it. What would he do if he had been forced to Spin Dash through all his animal buddies, Tails, Knuckles and Amy? What _would _he do?

"I don't know what I'd do, T-er, Miles," he said.

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

"Let's get a move on. What's next?"

"The stage is called dot dot dot. Robotnik's in this weird hallway and he goes down a bit to find Sonic."

"What happens then?"

"You'll see." The two started to ahead onwards, coming into a dark, black-and-white tile hallway, with red curtains slowly swaying above them. Candles gave a little light to the purplish, stained walls. It looked like a Sonic level, but it just wasn't, and the music was that Hill level, which must've been reversed before, since this one sounded fine.

"I don't like the look of this at all," Sonic mumbled. He swung off his backpack and grabbed a flashlight and an apple for himself.

"Can I have one, Sonic?" Tails mewled, and his stomach gurgled. Sonic gave the little fox an apple, which he munched on happily.

"So, Miles... what's Round Two like?"

"Sorry," he said after swallowing. "I've never been this far before. I don't know what it's like. We'll just have to see for ourselves." Flicking on the flashlight, Sonic munched on his apple and led the way. A few seconds went by, nothing happening, no laughter or bloody floors yet, and they were at the top of some stairs.

"Careful, Sonic." They descended the stairs, the walls growing reddish as the flames turned blue. Another empty hallway, much longer than the last one, and another flight of stairs.

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

The music faded out. Sonic and Miles were halfway down the stairs when this happened.

"Sonic, I'm scared," Tails whimpered, cowering behind his friend. The hedgehog urged the little fox onward until they hit the bottom of the dark red, black-flame hallway. Then Sonic tossed his apple core ahead of the hallway, into the darkness.

The core bounced right back.

"C'mon now, _me," _Sonic's voice echoed towards them. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

Sonic edged forward, Miles shivering uncontrollably at the foot of the stairs. He shined the flashlight on the tile, revealing bloodstains trailing ahead, and small, splintered bones.

He looked up when he felt those glowing red eyes staring into him, and nearly jumped up in alarm. He wanted to gasp but no sound escaped his gaping mouth.

Up close, Sonic-dot-exe was hideous. His red dot eyes gleamed in twisted delight, and his muzzle was stained with blood and blood smears. His yellow teeth had pink and red fleshy bits stuck in between them, and they were all showed off in a devious grin.

"_Foouund yoou,"_ he snickered.


	7. Chapter 7

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

"You monster..." Sonic stuttered.

His double chucked, then retorted, "Are we now? You do realize I'm _you, _right?"

He shook his head. "No. No you're not." He coughed; a sickening bloody stench clogging his throat. "You're just a game. A sick _hack!"_

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

"Well then, _real me, _come over here. You too, Tails, buddy."The fox cowered behind the real hedgehog, whimpering and shaking.

"Don't say that after what you did to him!" Sonic spat at the executable file. "Some_ friend_ you are to him!"

"Sheeesh. When did I become such a Shadow?" Sonic-dot-exe wondered, turning to lead himself and his friend deeper into the dark hallway. A trail of blood was smeared in the same direction.

"Well, _me, _I dunno what to say. Pretty smart of you, Tails, to fly me up and around as Mr. Grumpy Quills shot at me. Knuckles would've never figured that out."

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

The three were now in the void, and the bloody Sonic kept going. "By the way, d'you have any idea where the fake is? He just disappeared." He grumbled. "There's no telling where he might be. Heck, he could even be out of the game. But I doubt that, after all,"- a grin spread across the program's face, "I've got his little friend in here."

Miles stopped whimpering to shake out a question to his warped warden. "Uh...um... S-s-sonic... was-was that girl... down the street, you know, uh, was she-uh... um, really his girlfriend?"

"Pfffft. Yeah. Get this; he actually _smiled _around her. _Ha-ha! _Can you believe it?"

Sonic's heart ached. Shadow _never _smiled around his other friends. That girl... she must've meant the world to him- and knowing now that she was trapped in Round Two, where unknown horrors awaited...

"Why'd you have to mess with Shadow?" he mumbled.

"Ehh. I really didn't want to get him _in _here, honest. He's such a killjoy. But, you know, these things happen, y'know?" He put on a reminiscing face and began to giggle.

"Sonic..." the fox whimpered to the real one as the giggles got a little louder.

"She's _soo _cute though," he chortled. "Every little thing scares her to death. She squeaks and squeals and runs around like a little mouse. Ha-ha-ha. She's a lotta fun."

He stopped and turned, extending his arm to showcase another television. Dr. Robotnik's head lay slumped against the cracked glass of the screen. Blood trickled from his smashed glasses along his gray skin. Sonic couldn't see much of his eyes or mouth, but, the sight of him made him pity the mad scientist.

"Buttnik's not as fun as Egg-head," Sonic-dot-exe commented. "Your doc's pretty fun; so mad about this and scared outta his wits. But since he's Eggman, he's not gonna ask for help. You should see him jump. Ha ha. It's like I'm his worst nightmare!"

_No kidding, _Sonic thought. "So, _me," _he gulped, "what now?"

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

"All right! It's time for the main event!" he said, smiling from ear to ear. "Shame Shad doesn't know the rules, wherever he is."

The hedgehog slung his arm around the other's shoulders and guided him onward, leaving Tails shaking in the spot. "Here's the deal; if you can round up all our friends, Egghead, and Faker's girl, and make it to the end, I'll let all of you go."

"El-e-eleven people..." Tails stammered.

"Right-o, little buddy! Tell ya what, _me, _if you manage to find Ultimate Crybaby, too, I'll throw in Kris, Kyle and Tom."

True Blue put his fist to his mouth. Miles told him Kris had died, and that Kyle and Tom couldn't be helped.

"_That little fox doesn't know what's happened. He's never made it past his level. He's too slow."_

Was that...

"_C'mon... you never lie, do you?"_

"You gotta swear you'll never trap anybody in here ever again," he said facing himself dead in the eye.

"But _meeeeeee," _he whined,"It gets _so borrriiiiiinngg _around here. I'm sick of catching Tails and I'm sick of messing with Knuckles. I haven't had this much fun since Tom played with me! _Everybody's _in here now...well...not _everybody." _He scratched his head. "Huh. Cream and Cheese, Sonia and Silver. Honest, I thought fern-head would be the easiest to get in here. He's so gullible and slow."

Sonic's mind went back to the letter. "Maybe 'cause he knows about you," he said.

"Anywho. All ya gotta do is find everybody and get 'em to the end." AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

"What's in Round Two?"

"Oh, come on. Don't make me spoil the surprises. Just have fun! It's like a big easter egg hunt!" AHA hahahahaha

Red static began to flicker in the void. "Is it a deal, me?" Sonic-dot-exe asked, holding out a hand. "I'm _waaaaaiting."_

Sonic began to consider the possibilities. After all, Shadow disappearing into the game was worrisome enough. If he couldn't find Shadow, how was he supposed to get out with the others to avoid the dangers of Round Two? What if Shadow only came for his girlfriend and already escaped the program? How was Sonic supposed to get out without him? What if the black hedgehog was already caught by Sonic and was trapped in a TV like the others? What would he do then?

"Whaddya say?" Sonic's voice snapped him to reality, moving his blood-stained glove a bit.

What about Silver? If Silver got word about the rescue, would he be on his way or just wait it out? If he came after them, how would he know which Sonic was which? After all, this was _Silver_ he was thinking about. Did the paradox even know how to get into a computer like Shadow?

After what seemed like forever, Sonic locked a grip with the hand. "Deal." Tails gasped as the wicked Sonic curled his lips in a jovial grin.

"Sonic, _no!" _But soon, all Sonic could hear was static, and the drowning laugh of his double. The void, and the exe file were engulfed in red static, which blared in Sonic's ears.

The ground gave way, and the hedgehog was falling fast, flailing his arms about and spinning,until he finally got ready to land-

It was so dark and hot inside. He heard gurgling, like a river, but it sounded more like bubbling.

AHA ha-ha-ha-ha

"_Better hurry."_

The ground began to rumble, and Sonic heard splashes in the darkness. He turned his flashlight on to see where he was. Brown rock earth... Stalagmites and stalactites...

Flame Core?

But Sonic saw that the bubbling wasn't lava, it was steaming water, bubbling and,- it was slowly turning a rock into bubbles. There was another tremor.

"_I'd say this place is about to blow in... eh. Five minutes?"_

AHA hahahahaha

"Hellooooooo?" Sonic called out into the dark caverns.

"_In less than five minutes, we'll have a poached egg!"_

"Eggman!" Sonic called out, trying to figure out where else he could go from here. "Hey, Eggman!" Finding another path, Sonic jumped onto the raised ground. The beam of the flashlight struck a small alcove, and the hedgehog approached it. No sign of Eggman.

"Eggman, come on, we gotta get outta here!" The cavern shook violently. There were other places to go from here, but how far was the exit? If Sonic didn't get out of here, with or without Eggman, who knows what would happen to him?

"_That's easy. You stay with me."_

AHA hahahahaha

"Eggman! C'mon!" Sonic began to take quick peeks inside the other openings; nothing, nothing, the beam bounced back on Sonic when he hit a crystal inside the third opening. He started to walk away-

He thought he hear a sigh of relief inside. The hedgehog sped back, pointing the flashlight down as he entered. "Eggman! Eggman, is that you?"

"Not you!" he heard the voice of the maniacal doctor grumble. "You, you stay away from me, you sick corrupted data file!"

"Eggman! Eggman, it's okay! It's me, Sonic!" He waved his flashlight around the cave, catching a bit of Dr. Eggman's moustache in the light, then shining it on himself. "See?"

"I thought I'd never be happy to see _you _again," he muttered, catching his breath. "You have no idea how awful this has been for me! I'm already afraid of you as is, but then I get sucked in here by a "Sonic" even more horrifying-" His ranting was cut short by a sudden tremor, that almost drowned out that hideous laughter.

"Eggman, we've gotta get outta here!" Sonic insisted, and was happy to see the doctor making a run for it. They ran into the big tunnel as the rock crumbled about them.

"I can see a light over there!" Eggman informed, taking the lead, but Sonic swore he saw at least three other beams of daylight.

"Eggman, there's three more over here,-"

"It's a trick, Sonic! That _thing _is messing with you! This way!"

Reluctantly, Sonic followed the doctor's trail, and it did indeed lead outside. They ran along the crumbling mountainside and made a break for it as it went black.

AHA hahahahaha

"_What a show! I never thought you'd actually _listen _to McNosehair!"_

AHA hahahahaha

"So you were right..." Sonic mumbled.

Eggman puffed out his chest. "Well, of course I'm right! I've been stuck in here for _days, _tormented and tricked by that awful thing! You know Sonic, _you're _not very trustworthy yourself!"

"That guy isn't me, Eggman!" Sonic argued. "It's just a sick hack of my game!"

The doctor leaned in to disagree but both were snapped to attention by the laughter, followed by red static.

"What now..." the scientist grumbled, pretending not to look scared, even though Sonic too was a little unnerved by this game he was playing with himself.

"Eggman, I made a deal with this Sonic-dot-exe-thing," the hedgehog confessed.

Eggman flew back in surprise. "You _what?! Sonic, _that thing is a _monster, _he's even worse than all my other plans- You can't _trust _him!"

"He said if I found everybody he's trapped in here, he'll let us all go."

"Everyone?" Eggman echoed, scratching his head. "Who else is in here?"

"Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Team Chaotix, Blaze, Manic, and this other hedgehog."

"How'd you even get in here?"

"Shadow and I came in here," he said, then added, "But he only came for that last hedgehog I mentioned."

The doctor put his finger under his nose as he hummed. "Before you came along, I thought I heard _him _coming, so I hide in that mineral deposit. But whoever was there was calling out an odd name. Maybe that was Shadow, and he was looking for that hedgehog."

"Probably," Sonic nodded. "Hey, Eggman, do you know if we can get out of here?"

Eggman stroked his mustache, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I _have _been inside a computer terminal before. Shadow and Espio have, too. And I'm guessing that as a GUN agent, Rouge has been in one too.

"But you can't just get out of the computer at your will. You have to find the exit of the program you're in in order to be able to get out. And I bet that sadistic little Sonic is protecting it. Maybe it was a good idea to make that deal with him.

"Even so, Sonic, I doubt he'll let us go," he warned. "That little devil likes making us run around and scaring out of our wits. We're his _toys _in this world."

"I know," the hedgehog mumbled, "but it was the only way at a chance outta here. Shadow ran off, and I doubt he'll hang back waiting for the rest of us."

The static began to grow louder and then in faded another stage.

AHA hahahahaha

"Sonic," Eggman noticed the stage fading in, and Sonic held his breath when he saw it.

Chemical Plant Zone, spilling its bubbling, sizzling liquids everywhere. Buildings on fire. Sirens blared. Some parts of the complex exploded suddenly, rocking the world with it.

Who was trapped in this apocalyptic nightmare?

"_Knuckles and Rouge, sittin' in a tree… B-U-R-N-I-N-G…"_

AHA hahahahaha


	8. Chapter 8

"Eggman," Sonic said, when he got his breath back, "you know this place, right?"

"Of course I do," he said, looking around. "But in this nightmare, who knows what's changed."

"We hafta hurry, Eggman," the hedgehog insisted. "Please, where could Knuckles and Rouge be trapped? He said they were burning-"

"Hold your horses, now. There's a few places we can try." He pointed to the burning cityscape in the background. "If we can make it to those buildings over there, we can get to some rooms they might be trapped inside."

AHA hahahaha

"We gotta hurry, though." Sonic looked at the path before, fiery, and spilled toxic waste... "I don't think I can get around this fast enough." Eggman walked ahead a little bit with a handheld device, making buttons.

"I hope this works... If I just switch this...Aha!" The thing began to make noises and a oval shaped object began to float into view. The Eggmobile hovered in front of its creator, who climbed inside. "Come on, hedgehog," he gruffed to Sonic, a bit leary about hopping _in _it rather than _on _it. Once he was in, he automatically asked how fast this thing went.

"Oh hoho, faster than you think," Dr. Eggman chuckled, piloting the vehicle towards the smoking buildings afar.

* * *

Speeding through a dark forest, Shadow frantically called out into the darkness. "Selene!" He said, pausing after each cry, straining to hear an answer. "Selene, it's me! I'm gonna get you out, where are you?" Nothing. Shaking his head as thoughts of that twisted Sonic, that horrible nightmare of a game, _playing _with that fragile girl, and tears bubbling in the corners of his eyes, he pressed onward.

AHA hahahaha

_"Leave her alone you #&$^*!" _he screamed, and then stumbled back when the scenery changed. Black in the windows... and dimly lighted hallways...

"Selene?"

"Shadow, where are you?" came a soft voice, one that barely spoke.

His heart flew, and he sped into the hallways of the ARK. "Selene! Selene, I'm coming! Stay where you are!"

Pssshhh. The door sealed behind him, but the sight of the gray hedgehog with her back turned to him drowned out all other senses. "Selene, I'm so glad to see your okay..." Her image flickered, and the hedgehog approached her hesitantly. "Are... are you all right, Selene?"

When his hand rested on the girl's shoulder, her head spun towards him instantly, with those black-with-red-dotted eyes, and it was _him. _

_ "Gotcha," _Sonic-dot-exe chuckled, before his smile unhinged and Shadow's rare, frightened scream pierced the static around them.

* * *

Sirens blared inside the burning plant, red lights flashing and doors spewing out smoke and fire. The air seared and steam shrieked, tricking Sonic into thinking that it was Rouge screaming, but it wasn't. Flames rained down on the hedgehog's fur as the ceiling gave way to the fires above and below it.

"Knuckles?!" Sonic screamed, barely audible with the fwooshing flames and blaring sirens. Then he noticed a doorway surrounded by fire, with trademark dents shaped like fists with points pushing out on it. Sweating, and for fear of becoming a hedgehog on fire, Sonic bounced on his toes before jumping into a ball as heat engulfed him.

Landing on the floor with a thud, the blue blur banged on the door, praying Knux and Rouge were conscience and on the other side to reply. "Knuckles! Rouge? Are you guys in there?"

Coughs made him jump with joy. "Are you guys okay? We're gonna get you out, I promise- Eggman!" Sonic yelled at the sight of a roundish shadow in the smoke. "Eggman, I'm over here!" he called.

That wasn't Egghead in his Eggmobile. It was a Badnik, Grabber, which jumped at Sonic with its arms outreached. He let out a cry as it landed on him, and he flailed as it wrapped around his torso. A beeping noise was ringing in his ears-

Self-destruct. He had to get this thing off of him, quickly. The hedgehog rolled around, and tried forcing the beeping Badnik off, but he began to cough and wheeze,- there was so much smoke, and he could hear Knuckles and Rouge alongside him behind the door-

_That's it!_

"Guys-_cough, cough," _he said, banging on the metal, "get-_cough, _away from the door-_cough!" _Without paying attention to their replies Sonic yanked the Badnik off of him in desperation and tossed it at the door.

As the spider hit the door, it exploded, smoke spewing from all directions, Sonic could barely breathe, and he tried to remember where the door was before-

A glove pawed at his shoulder with a cough, hard, as if trying to test the hedgehog's tangiblity. Sonic squinted as he turned to find a coughing, soot covered echidna on his knees behind him. A gray-black-smudged up white glove hung over his supporting shoulder. Sonic crawled over to Knuckles' side, tearing up from the burning smoke and chemicals in the air, like his red friend, who began to make his way to where the smoke wasn't so thick, and- maybe, he remembered a way out, too. Sonic began to worry as he waddled behind his older friend as he saw Rouge's body limp across Knux's back.

"Sonic? Sonic are you there?" He heard a blaring call... Eggman, where... where was he? Above... above.. maybe? Sonic began to feel light-headed, as his body violently coughed out the chemicals burning around him, nearly rear ending Knuckles. His elbows buckled, he collapsed in a mad fit of convulsions. Whereas the fiery halls were growing darker with smoke, the hedgehog's vision was growing white, and his heart crumpled at the sound of that haunting laughter.

AHA hahahaha

"_Just go to sleep, pal. You've done enough... At least you didn't fall for any silly traps like Faker." _What was that? ...Shadow? Did...did he...?

AHA hahahaha

"_That's right. I found our favorite moody black sheep. I was gonna tell you after you found Knux and Rouge... but..."_

AHA hahahaha

"_You're about ready for a nap right about now. Don't worry; you and I can play as long as you'd like once you wake up."_

Hacking up the smoke and toxins, getting to his shaking knees and arms, Sonic stood up, his head in the thick of the smoke, fear driving him to look for a light, and when that white beam from around the corner and towards them, he jumped higher into the black, once...twice...weakness... can't feel my legs... can't... can't breathe...

White... and black.

AHA hahahaha

* * *

Cream sat in the grass in front of the hog's household, falling asleep. Her Chao Cheese also yawned and expressed her worry; Mister Sonic and Mister Shadow had been gone for two days now. She clutched the letter tightly and fell to the cool grass, asleep, her little blue Chao curling up beside her.

Two minutes afterward, a strange-looking creature, body and head of a Chao, but having a Voxai's tail and flipper-like extensions on his head, and a Wisp's arms, though his were about as long as any other Chao, and two floating, short antennae on either side of his little floating orb. A clear-blue jewel on its forehead shined in the sun. He hovered over the sleeping rabbit and Chao curiously, and began to alert its owner.

"_Biii! Bii! Chaoooo!" _the creature called, circling the two using his dragonfly-like wings. The Mobian walked over and pet the Chao-thing's head, calling it "Lorin." The Mobian noticed the piece of paper in the little girl's head, and Lorin followed his owner's gaze. He lowered to grasp the note and pull it free of Cream's clutch. Lorin held out the paper to his owner like a dog holds out a toy for its owner to throw, and was met with another pat on the head as the owner took it.

"..."Sonic-dot-exe?"" Silver wondered as his Chao hovered over him, looking over the note another time, eyes widening. "I wonder if that's what caused the...-" He dropped the letter and ran off, his little Chao flying after him.


	9. Chapter 9

Sonic coughed and wheezed, waking up in black. Oh, please, _please, _he couldn't- no, he'd... failed and he'd condemned everybody-

"Sonic, hey,- he's waking up," Knuckles' voice came to his ears, and soon his red head popped into his blurry view. "Hey, Sonic. How're you feeling?"

"Knuckles?" the hedgehog weakly coughed. Rouge and Eggman's head came up too. "Hey... where... are we?"

"We're in between the zones," Rouge said.

"I saw you jumping before you passed out," Eggman went on, "and found you, Knuckles and Rouge. You'd jumped into the smoke of some toxic chemicals. If we hadn't gotten out as fast as we did, you might've died."

_AHA hahahahah_

_ AHA HAHAHAH _The laughing program seemed to be getting wilder and wilder. Was he going to do something as they were in between saves?

_ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH_

_ "You're awake! Geez, I thought you were a goner!"_

_ AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA _

_ "Wasn't that just _fun, ME? C'mon, now, don't lie..." How come he sounded so much closer... and how come the others didn't hear the Sonic talking?

"You _know _that was fun, don't you? Heeheehee!" _Fun? _"Didn't you get a _rush? _Don't you _love it? _Man, oh, _man! _Just _watching _you, I was on the edge!

"Well...actually... I was right there with you, buddy," Sonic-exe said, sounding as if he was right there, reclining beside him as Knuckles, Eggman and Rouge were moving their lips without anything audible coming out.

"You're _me, me," _he chuckled. "And I'm _you." _

Sonic shook his head, vision seeming to double as the executable file laughed. "Aw, just relax, man. Don't stress. I wanna show you somethin real quick, c'mon."

The world around him began to drown in static, and he was transported into a hall lined with mirrors... or was it glass? No, mirrors. Not from a Sonic game, either, but... Where was he? He began to walk along the length of the hallway, and after a few mirrors he heard his doppelganger's haunting laugh.

He faced the mirror. He saw his eyes were black, bleeding, and glowing red.

_"I'm YOU...and you're ME."_

_ aha hahahahah_

Suddenly the glass shattered and Sonic was knocked to the opposite wall. As he shielded his face from the showering glass, he heard someone grunting and running over to him-

_"You stay away from me, you-you AWFUL Sonic!" _Amy shrieked- Amy!

"Amy!" The hedgehog jumped away from the girl's frantic Piko Piko swinging. "Amy, Amy _wait!"_

_ "You look like Sonic, but you're a BAD Sonic!" _she yelled, tearing up, smashing the mirrors as she swung at her idol. "You're not fooling me again!"

"AMY! Stop!" Sonic screamed before the hammer smashed his face, sending him to the ground. He covered his crumpled nose up with an "Ouch," and then heard the pink hedgehog gasp as the hammer fell to the carpet.

_"SONIC!" _she squealed, tackling the hedgehog, squeezing the pain out of his face and replacing it with the implosion of his insides. "Oh, Sonic! I'm so glad it's _you! _I thought you were that evil scary Sonic on my computer-he dragged me inside it, and he's been chasing me and tricking me and- _oh, _it was so _awful!" _She began to sob into his shoulder, loosening her hold on him.

"Amy..." Sonic murmured, lowering his ears. He'd heard her scream and ran as fast as he could, but... he was a little too late. "I'm sorry I didn't get there fast enough..."

"You...you mean..." she sniffled, "you mean you...you were coming to save me?" Her cheeks tinged.

Sonic's broken face felt like it was on fire. "Uhn, yeah."

AHA hahahahaha... Amy clung to her hero with a gasp. "Oh, no, not again!" she whimpered, burrowing herself into Sonic."I'm sick of his stupid laugh! It's so unlike yours, Sonic, I don't know how I even fell for it!"

_"Hmm-hmm! People change, Amy," _Sonic's voice boomed. _"And I like it." _And as if to taunt her, he laughed harder, and it echoed off the walls, sounding as if ten Sonics started laughing at different times. The pink hedgehog started to cry again.

"Leave me alone," she whined. "I thought you were my hero, Sonic..."-to the exe, not the hedgehog, "And you tricked me."

"Aw, I'm sorry Amy. It's just been awhile since I've seen your cute little face... I lost my Amy a long, _long _time ago, when I was..._me."_

_ EHE heheheh..._

"But she's gone. So I brought you in here to play with me."

"Leave her alone!" Sonic screamed at the dark figure at the other end of the hallway, at the red dots in the darkness. "Amy thought you were _me, _you sick _hack!"_

"Isn't that what she _always _thinks when she runs up to somebody?" he snickered. "Let's not forget that time she actually got it right and doubted herself. Aha hahaha... make that _two _times."

Sonic rose to his feet, pulling Amy with him, still crying. "How many times to I have to tell you..." he growled, feeling his quills and fur bristle, and then he screamed, _"YOU AREN'T __**ME!"**_

Sonic-exe bolted towards them, but Sonic had already scooped up Amy and rocketed down the hallway, which lead to stairs going up. She screamed, and immediately whirled her head so that she faced the front. "Sonic, hurry! He's catching up!"

"Hold on tight, Amy! I'll get us out!"

AHA hahahahaha

"Sonic! Go left!" the girl yelped, and with a wide turn, leaning so far that Amy could've stretched her legs out and be standing up right, the hedgehog sped down the corridor. Passing under an archway, mirrors composed the hallway,-Sonic could see in his peripheral his bloody, twisted twin flying, _flying, _after him, grinning ear to ear. Amy wailed, clinging to him. Up another set of stairs, another fork, that or a window.

_Which ever way, you two lovebirds'll be together forever._

_ AHA hahahahahahahaha!_

_ "Brace yourself, Amy!" _ Sonic barked before he smashed through the glass, feeling he was tumbling down... Amy screamed as they somersaulted down into the sky below.

* * *

A young man hung his head, his fingers embedded in his dirty-blonde hair. All he heard was laughter, _his _laughter, Sonic's laughter, and bits of what he'd said to him.

_"Life is a game, Kris... A long game where you only get one chance."_

Yes, Kris nodded to himself. One chance... and he'd rightly deserved his game over. He'd hacked countless games, each one getting more bloody, gruesome and wrong. But whatever he did to Sonic, it'd made him upset. What'd he forget to do? None of the other protagonists of the other games had ever broken the fourth wall when he'd hacked into them... Oh, if only he could remember what he'd done, and if only he could remember that when he'd hacked _Sonic the Hedgehog _PC, then, then Peter and Jim, Tommy, Max and Jessica, all his friends, and God knows how many-

_"Kris?" _Sonic wondered, echoing in his head. _"I thought I told you about that. Don't you remember?"_

Oh yes, that's right, he thought. God... he doesn't exist in this plane. Not in computers. Not in this world, anyway. His world. Sonic's world.

_**"I AM GOD."**_

_**AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**_

* * *

_**- Hey there guys! JayPuma here.**_

_**We're comin up on the 10th chapter, and we're about to get pretty deep (if it wasn't already) in Sonic-exe's world. **_

_**Please let me know what you like and don't like about SMS; feedback is HIGHLY appreciated, and I'd like to hear from you guys about the story.**_

_**Thanks for reading!**_

_**9-6-13**_


	10. Chapter 10

Tails could hear the echoing laugh of the executable file in the hallways. He tried to keep his short breath inaudible to _his _ears so he could find the parts he needed to get the gadget in his hands working. He had gathered the pieces he needed in the wrecked lab of Metropolis,- the stage in Sonic Chronicles, post Angel Island crash, but different. It was as if before the crash, the floating island had caught fire and exploded as it hit the city, looking a bit like Crisis City sans lava and Iblis monsters. But the heat wasn't the thing making him pant and sweat as he fumbled with the wires of his handheld.

_AHA hahahaha_

_ AHA hahahaha_

It was like hearing him walk down the halls with steps as loud as thunder, though some thunder would be a welcome change to the little fox; his watch indicated that he'd spent at least _five _days in this awful game. He regretted ignoring Sonic's, _not _this Sonic, good old Sonic, confusion when he'd shown him the disc he'd found.

"Whaddya need that for?" he said. "If you wanna play that, I can hook up my Genesis in here and-"

"Aw, Sonic, this is more accessible!" Tails pleaded. "Besides, I've never. played a PC version of your old games."

"That's cause I've got a perfectly good Genesis you can play 'em on."

"I'll just play it at my house," Tails said, letting himself out.

His heart sank at how he'd been thinking before the Sonic-exe sucked him inside the game. Pressing "Escape" hadn't stopped that gruesome thing from grabbing him up. A simple Word doc couldn't save him, what with the little time he had before Sonic snatched him up and into this nightmare.

_AHA hahaHAHAHA_

He was getting closer- the little fox's heart pounded. If that Sonic caught him, would he be trapped like his other self, inside a TV with no eyes and blackened fur?

A spark bounced up from the connecting parts, and hope with it. The genius flipped the other side over and turned the dial as the Sonic laughed once more.

_AHA HAHA- Ack! _

A high pitched ringing filled the air, and the stage flashed momentarily. He could hear the hedgehog outside wince as if a rock had hit him on the head. "Ah..." the Sonic let out, sounding a little unnerved.

It'd worked, but it wasn't strong as Tails'd hoped. The initial burst didn't hold out, and it wasn't paralyzing. It was too broad. Why was that-

That's it! Sonic was_ everywhere! _He controlled the game, so the device must've been attacking the environment too! The fox turned the dial back to zero and began making the modifications...

* * *

"Ow!" Sonic exclaimed, swatting the side of his felt like he just got hit by a rock... a really sharp one. He grumbled as he rubbed it.

"What's wrong, Sonic? Are you hurt?" Amy wondered, approaching were in a dark jungle area now, but with the sudden pain Sonic couldn't figure it out.

"I'm fine," he insisted, opening his eyes to see if-

Blood. Blood all over his gloves.

Dead animals everywhere.

He heard laughter, but it wasn't his, or that other Sonic, Sonic had never heard it before.

He was covered in blood, all of it-

"Sonic?" Amy's voice. Amy? Where was she?

Behind, on her side... she had a gaping hole in her chest. Sonic screamed.

"Sonic!" Amy hissed, shaking him. "Don't do that! He'll hear us!" Jungle. Amy was okay... no blood anywhere.

"Wha...what just happened?" he said, rubbing his head, then tentatively looked at his hand. No red... Had he just imagined it?

"_I'm _YOU..."

"...and you're _me," _Sonic whispered to himself, covering his mouth. Amy gave a "huh" before they were interrupted by a shrill scream.

"_AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Somebody help meeeeeee!"_

"_Charmy!" _both hedgehogs yelled as they tore through the thick foliage. Vines lashed at the hedgehog's skin with their thorns. But the dark was soon brightened as orange sunlight glared from the water's surface below. The level of the water was lower than that of the ground, and a giant spider web connected the sides of the lake together.

Tied down in the center of the web was Charmy Bee. He was crying and wriggling, and his wings fluttered together, but the sound they made was different from the usual buzzing.

"Charmy!" Amy yelped at the bee. He opened his eyes and turned his head towards them, almost screaming at Sonic.

"_AAAAAAAAHHH! _Somebody help me!"

"_Charmy!" _Amy snapped. "This is the _real _Sonic! Did you think I'd fall for that fake one?!"

Before the bee opened his mouth to disagree, the web started to wiggle as a dark shape began to waddle its way towards the dying sun's light. It was a hideously twisted and gigantic spider, red saliva dripping from its interlocking fangs and teeth, which it opened slightly and then closed. Its big black eyes fixated at the two hedgehogs at the end of its web, then followed their gaze to a sweating, wide-eyed insect stuck on it.

"Dinner's served!" Sonic's voice cackled around all four of them. The spider gave a hissing squeal as it raised its head to the sky. Amy yanked on Sonic's shoulder as she ran towards the web, and then _dived _into the water.

"Amy!- What are you doing?!" Sonic called after her when she surfaced. She just kept swimming under the web towards Charmy's wriggling body. Sonic sprang onto the string of web and began to dart towards Charmy's direction.

The silk made the hedgehog whiplash back towards the wall, but to his horror the string stretched out, making him fall towards the water, his head suddenly submerged-

WATER! His lungs were immediately filled with it- As the silk bounced back, Sonic thrashed about as he spat the water out of his mouth. After Sonic noticed he was falling back towards the water, he grabbed at the bank and clawed himself back onto solid ground.

"Aw... it's okay," his voice came to him. "I know that you can't swim, buddy. Tell ya what... When you and I get together, I'll give ya swimming lessons."

His panting sharply stopped as he met eyes with his doppelganger. The red-against-black eyed Sonic gave him a wide smile.

Aha hahaha

The wet hedgehog backed away from the gruesome figure, and he stopped dead when the dirt gave way under his toes. Trapped. Trapped-

"C'mon, now. You're being a bit chicken, aren't you?"

Eheheheheh

Sonic-exe flashed away as Charmy screamed out. Sonic whirled around to find the pink hedgehog furiously hanging on to the bee's hands as the arachnid's mandibles clamped around the boy's torso. The spider eased its head away from the water where Amy was, and swiped at her face with one of its legs, and red spots appeared on the black shiny eyes.

Before Sonic could blink he was curled up and hurdling towards the spider. As Sonic started to uncurl he could hear the beast squeal in agony. The hedgehog landed on the other side of the lake-pit and turned to see Amy holding Charmy and swimming out of the spider's reach. Instead of going after the projectile, the spider hissed in rage at the two in the water, and rushed towards them.

No-! Sonic eyed the web over the pit, trying to find a way to stop the spider from getting to them without the risk of w-

Water! Spiders couldn't swim, could they? Ev-even if they could, if the web dropped down into the water, the spider would be stunned for a bit and Amy and Charmy could get out!

Sonic slapped at the anchor point of one of the main "arms", and as his hand pulled away the anchor came with it too, so as fast as he could, he swatted the anchors one-by-one.

Amy screamed as the spider, entangled in its collapsing web, and Sonic, whose right hand had all the stuck-together threads, fell into the water.

* * *

Two boys walked in the darkening tall woods, woods that reminded Tom of that game _Slender, _and then he sighed with relief as he remembered the Slenderman wasn't real like the nightmarish Sonic-exe, and the only thing they heard was grass crunching underneath their feet.

"I just hope that thing doesn't make us go into that castle from _Amnesia," _the other boy, Kyle, said. He had brown hair and his bloodshot eyes weren't the bright hazel Tom remembered he had. Tom was a blonde with deep green eyes, but due to their entrapment, they weren't what they used to be.

"I doubt he'll use that," Tom said. "That game's too complicated; too many instructions, too many meters and too much complexity."

"But it's a creepy game like this one," Kyle argued.

"I know, but in _Slender, _there's only a few controls and objectives, right? You only have a flashlight and you have to find the eight pages before Slendy gets you. _Amnesia _was so creepy and confusing that I stopped playing after a while."

Silent sunset. Then, as the last of the light burned out, Kyle whimpered, "I wanna go home, man."

Tom sighed and shook his head. Kyle just didn't understand; Sonic was never gonna let his toys go. He was_ evil, _just, _satanic. _Kyle, Kris and he were trapped here forever and there was nothing they could do about it.

"I wanna go home, too, Kyle," Tom mumbled back as they walked through the darkness.

* * *

Bubbles floated in front of Sonic's face as the circle of light began to shrink There was no way he'd be able to last for much longer.

In his head he could hear the executable file humming the drowning theme to himself. It propelled the hedgehog to swim up, up up. Why was it so far away?! Exe-Sonic was eagerly speeding up the tempo, and his lungs were shriveling. Just a little longer, come on!

"Dununununununununununununun...

"_BUH-DANT!"_

Sonic gasped as he broke the surface. He was barely able to keep afloat, but Charmy buzzed around his head and grabbed his arm to pull him to shore. "Hiya Sonic! Thanks for drowning that spider! I'm sorry I screamed at you! Man, you're so cool Sonic! But that other Sonic's not cool at all! He's scary and bad and all kinds of creepy!"

"Hi... Charmy..." Sonic managed as he clamored up the bank, filling his lungs with air just to have them squeezed out by Amy.

"_Sonic!" _she squealed, but she shook afterwards. In the real world, she would've been going on and on about how worried she was and that somehow she knew that he'd be okay, but, all she said was, "Don't ever do that again..."

"Hey Sonic," Charmy wondered, "where's everybody else? Did you find them, too? Cuz I got sucked into the computer like _WHOOSH! _and then I thought maybe that bad Sonic was behind this, and he was sucking people up into the computer or something, so maybe Tails and Dr. Eggman are stuck in here, too. Did you get sucked up too?"

"Sonic jumped in here to save us," Amy said to the bee. "He found out how to do that all by himself, Charmy."

"Wow! So you know how to do that too?! I know _Shadow _could do it but I didn't think you'd ever need to do that since Tails always helps you with that sort of thing."

"Actually," Sonic said, finally able to breathe, "Shadow and I came in here together. But he ran off to find somebody else..."

Charmy shut up with an "ohhhh" as Amy raised an eyebrow. "Sonic, are there more people in here than just Charmy, Eggman, Tails and me?"

Sonic started to explain what started to happen, from how their neighborhood soon depopulated after Eggman and Tails went missing to up until Sonic found Amy, or rather, Amy found Sonic. The dawn began to recolor the sky when Sonic finished with, "So, to recap, including Eggman, Rouge, Knuckles, inside here is Blaze, Espio, Vector, Tails, Shadow and whoever he's looking for."

"That girl down the street?" Amy wondered. "I think her name's Selene or something like that."

"Yeah yeah! Shadow goes to her house _a looot. _I think he like _likes _her or something like that."

"Besides the point," Sonic interrupted, "we gotta find all of them, and then we can get a chance of getting out of here."

They all got up and started to walk through the jungle. Charmy offered to go ahead and scout but Sonic urged him not to. He didn't want the group to be split up even further. They had to find the other group first, and Sonic guessed that might take awhile too.

Ehehehehehe

_You could've just asked, ya know._

Red static enveloped the three and soon the world faded to black, and then faded into another stage. "Sonic..." Amy whimpered clinging on to her hero. Charmy also cowered behind Sonic, shaking with fear.

"Don't worry," he assured both of his friends. "We're gonna be okay. Just stay close."

_AHA hahahahaha_

* * *

Manic was gasping for breath as he groped his way around in the dark, face bruised from ramming into a wall running away from Sonic- no, man, no, that's _not _my brother!- and he'd never ran so much before.

_Ahahahahahahaha_

"Aw, man, just go _away!" _he shrieked as he kept going. Pawing his way around the dark, he started to try and calm down. Okay, okay, so who got sucked up in here again? Um, uh, Tails, and Robotnik, Knuckles, Rouge, and-uh, Amy, Blaze and Team Chaotix. So, he was bound to run into somebody, right? Aw, man, he hoped so.

"It's gonna be okay, man," he told himself as he felt his way around. "Cuz Sonic's gonna come and save the day like always, and he'll come cuz he saw me got sucked into here and everything's gonna be okay. He's not gonna forget his brother."

A shiver ran through Manic's spine when Sonic-exe chuckled from behind him.

"Of course I won't, Manic. Why do you think you're stuck here when everybody else is out there?"

"Cause you're a sick monster," he grumbled.

"Nu-uh. Cause you're my brother, and I'm not gonna leave without you."

EHeheheheheheheh

"Wanna know a secret, Manic?"

"No I don't!" he hissed, blindly swinging in the darkness. "Bug off, you sad excuse for a Sonic!"

No chuckling this time; just a low repeating grumble.

RRR-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr...

"What.."-this time, the computer thing sounded darkly angry before going back to sounding like a serious Sonic, "...what did you say?"

"Just go away, man! Leave me _alone!" _

Rrr-Rrr-Rrr-rrr-rrr

Two red dots appeared in the darkness, but no silhouette of the blue hedgehog.

"I'll show _you _a sad excuse for a hedgehog," Sonic-exe growled as he lunged at Manic with a horrendous, guttural scream.

* * *

**Hey readers! Ten chapters already, and there's going to be lots more.**

**Please check my profile for a quiz asking about what you'd like to see more of.**

**If want you want to see more of isn't listed, please leave a review. I _really _wanna know what you guys like/don't like about it.**

**Sincerely,**

**JayPuma186**


	11. Chapter 11

A familiar yelp bounced into Sonic's ears. "Manic?" he called out, turning his head side to side. "Manic?"

"Sonic? Did you hear someone?" Amy wondered, as Charmy looked around skeptically.

"I didn't hear anybody," the bee informed. "Maybe you're tired, Sonic. Maybe you outta lay down for a bit."

Nope. Nope. Nope. And as if Amy could sense the hedgehog's anxiety, she gave Charmy a little head-shake no. "Sonic's had to go through a lot to find our friends, Charmy. And he's been chased around by that awful Sonic, too..." Amy's eyes widened when she looked at Sonic again, and she admitted, "Still... you don't look very good either, Sonic. What's wrong?"  
"Let's... let's just find the others, first," he said, holding the invisible bruise on his head and walking into the dark corridor of the stone-walled environment Sonic-exe had warped them into. Dark... like a cellar, and the torches on the walls barely illuminated the space. There were some stairs leading down where some barrels were. "Keep quiet, and try to listen for Knuckles, Rouge and Eggman," he whispered.

"Sonic..." Charmy poked at him, "Hey Sonic. One time I woke up inside here, and I thought I'd just fallen asleep, cause Vector and Espio were there, but they didn't say anything, and when I started poking at them, they turned into red static."

"Me too," Amy said, "but that Sonic has your voice. I think he tricks us by using recordings of our friends, but only when they've been in here. He's so horrible, that Sonic. Tricking all of our friends and trapping us in here in this computer game. I'd like to give him a taste of my Piko Piko hammer!"

"And I'd like to give him a knuckle-sandwich!" Sonic, Charmy and Amy turned around to find Knuckles, Rouge and Eggman behind them, all okay.

"You guys are okay!" Sonic exclaimed, happy to see them. "What happened after I disappeared?"

"We were stuck in the space for a while," Dr. Eggman informed. "It looks like you've managed to find Amy and Charmy, too. Is there anyone else stuck in this particular zone?"

"I'm not sure."

_AHA hahahahaha_

_ "Wow. I didn't expect _them _to find _you _first. That was a little too fast. Yawwn."_

"Don't try anything funny!" Knuckles barked at the echoing voice. "I'll make you pay for this!"

_EHEH heheheheheh_

_ "Calm down, Knux. No need to get so fired up. Oh hey! Speaking of fire..."_

A shriek cut across the air, bouncing off the hallways and up and down the cellar stairs making it impossible for Sonic to tell where it was coming from.

"Blaze!" Sonic and Amy said simultaneously.

_"Tick-tock tick-tock."_

_ EHEH heheheheheh_

"We should split up!" Knuckles proclaimed, met with a bit of mixed mumblings.

"I don't want any of you guys to get separated again," Sonic said, scratching his head. But on the other hand, if they didn't hurry, Blaze might be done for. He couldn't let any of his friends, or enemies for that matter, die in this place.

"Sonic," Eggman started, "We've been working on something while you were gone. You see my Eggmobile here? Sure, it's pretty real given the perspective, but it's actually just part of the file's data. Just like any sort of game's files and codes. Since it's not like the real thing, I had to modify the setting on my remote control to get it working."

That's right! Eggman was tampering with his remote in Bad Chemical Plant Zone to summon his machine! "Everything inside here besides everyone who's trapped in here is merely data from the game, all really pixels and other things like that."

"But Eggman!" Charmy protested, "How can we be in the game if we're not part of the game? Aren't we like transformed into data too?"

"That's half true, Charmy. We _are _in some sense data, too. But we're not meant to be in here; after all, that Sonic had to drag us inside here to get us in."

"How'd he do that, anyway?" Sonic wondered. "I mean, one minute my brother's being sucked into the screen like it's some sort of vacuum, and then the next the glass came back."

"_I_ can't even explain it, Sonic," the doctor said. "Whatever that _thing _did to us when he dragged us in here, it only happens when..." Everybody else went dead silent and wide eyed.

"What? What's the matter?" Sonic wondered, before Amy burst out crying and clung to him as if he was the only way to stay alive. "Amy... Amy, what's the matter?"

_AHAHAhahahahahahahahah_

_ "Just go up the stairs and see," _he said, as they all faded away into darkness.

_Eheh Heheheheheheheheheheh_

Whispers flooded his ears with each step, sometimes screams following afterward-

"SAY IT, KRIS!"

-and twisted, distorted laughter of that other Sonic, that Sonic-exe-

"SAY IT!"

_"NO!"_

-all different screams, and then, there was Tails's scream-

"SAY IT _NOW, _KRIS! _% $#&^#$ SAY IT!"_

-and then Eggman's-

_AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH_

-Charmy's-

_AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH_

-Knuckles' and Rouge's-

_HEEEHEHEEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAH_

-Amy's-

_AAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA_

-all of his friends, another unfamiliar scream, followed by two that made his heart sink.

Manic's last scream of terror as his brother let go of him... and then... Shadow's scream.

Ahahahahahahahah.

"That's right, me! Faker's stuck in here like the rest of our friends! Always second best, eh?" Hahahahaha

By now, Sonic was at the door, and sweat rolled down his forehead as the whispers came back.

"C'mon now, Kris... don't tell me you forgot it already."

"I wanna go home..."

_"Krissss..."_

"Please...just let me go home..."

"Say it Kris. You are home. You're home, Kris."

"Uh-huh..."

"So will you say it now?"

"Say what?"

Sonic grabbed the handle of the door and slowly it creaked open as Kris's voice choked out, "you're...you're..."

"That's right, Kris..." The light from behind Sonic hit the reflective surface of the bloody message painted on the wall as Sonic-exe chuckled.

_**"I AM GOD."**_

Sonic's throat felt swollen so he couldn't scream at the blood-written "THIS IS HELL" on the walls. His eyes burned and his lip quivered, but he didn't scream. He felt like once his friends had been put through the nightmares of Round One, and then when they met Exe up and close- Sonic remembered the image of the executable file's face, that up-close-personal, and how his heart had stopped seeing it- he must have told them, and then, lunging, they must've screamed.

So why wasn't he screaming?

_eheheheheheheh_

"Blaze?" Sonic coughed out, pushing down the fear of the message and whispers. "Blaze... where are you? Please..."

_She's not lis-nen-innng..._

Hesitantly, the hedgehog stepped inside the room, only to have the door slam shut behind him, making him flinch. If Blaze wasn't listening to him, then he'd have to feel around the room for the cat unless he...

Suddenly, he could hear weeping in the direction of the walls, low, muffled weeping.

_"Shhhhh-shu-shu-shusssh," _he heard a muffled voice, but there was no doubt Blaze was not the one playfully commanding herself to be quiet. This was confirmed by a whining that was almost drowned out by the haunting laughter.

"Let her go," Sonic barked at the darkness.

"Aw, come on, now, _mee," _Sonic-exe said as his glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness of the room. "I was just getting started! Heh-heh-heh-heh!"

"This isn't right, and you should know it," he spat. "I don't do this to my friends! Let Blaze go!"

"Blaze, huh? Heh-heh-heh-heh... Are you sure that's who you want?"

Sonic gasped as the room became lit, revealing that the bloody exe wasn't holding the pyro-princess, but he was holding Amy. Amy?! What was going on? She was supposed to be downstairs with the others!

The others?

"What did you do?!" Sonic yelled as his double chuckled, making tears stream down Amy's face, soaking the gag tied around her head.

_"Whaaat?" _he said, as if he'd been caught jumping on a bed that was just made. "Don't cha think a little twist makes things more_ interesting?"_

"You...you... _you evil piece of #*&%#$! Let them go!"_

"Ahahahahah..." A wicked grin crept across the hedgehog's bloody cheeks. "I didn't think you'd start cussin yourself out. Heh-heh. Let's see..."

"Let my friends _go!" _he screamed, bristling. "If you've got something against me, then come at _me, _not my friends! Let them go!"

Sonic-exe laughed for a bit, straightening himself up, as if considering the idea. Amy was whimpering and shaking all over, eyes red from sobbing, and she began to hiccup.

The executable file let go of Amy, who fell to the floor in a wailing heap, too weak to get to her feet. Sonic started to run over to Amy, and untie the gag, a warm tear running down his cheek.

"Oh, Sonic!" Amy hiccuped, burrowing her face into her chest, crying. Sonic let her cry for a bit and closed his eyes for a bit.

They flew open when Sonic-exe laughed.

"Sike!" he said, and then Sonic heard static buzzing in ears, and Amy lept back with a yelp. The hedgehog's hands started to flicker, static flying across his gloves and he began to fade away.

_"SON-NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC!" _Amy shrieked as he faded out of sight with a scream of static. Sonic-exe, on the other hand, smirked, chuckling like a kid whose prank had gone better than anticipated.

"Happy landings," he said under his breath.


	12. Chapter 12

Sonic screamed as he fell in the dark void, tumbling and tumbling down, a bottomless pit- he was gonna hit the ground so hard he'd surely die. He'd die and condemn everyone, _everyone, _to live and be taunted by the nightmarish Sonic-exe,- a fate he didn't even want to bestow to Dr. Eggman or Shadow or anyone. Being tampered with that that _thing _was unbearable, and if that monster had a creator-

Kris.

_Kris! _That guy! It was all his fault! All of it! Sonic felt his horror bubble into rage inside of him, as he clenched his fists. That stupid kid messed with my game and made that _EVIL EXE! _ He made him kill animals and Tails and Knuckles-

That scumbag made me KILL _AMY!_

As Sonic hit the ground with a bounce, he realized the nasty thoughts he'd started to have as he fell weren't... they weren't...

Eheh-hehheheheheheh

"_Man, you should have seen your face!" _Sonic-exe chuckled. _"Priceless! I wish I had a camera! Ahahaahahaha!"_

"You... you leave my friends alone!"

"Our _friends, mee," _the voice corrected, in a lyrical tone. _"We're the same fun-loving Sonic the Hedgehog!"_

"_You jerk YOUDON'TEVENDESERVETOBE__**MYCOPY!" **_the hedgehog roared. "You're nothing but a bloody sick HACK that's _deluded _yourself into thinking you're _me! LET MY FRIENDS GO OR ELSE I'M GONNA COME AFTER YOU!"_

Eheheheheheheheheh...

Sonic-exe appeared in front of the hedgehog propped up on his elbows, smiling at Sonic, who growled and felt saliva filling his mouth, spit that needed to be aimed at that _thing. _

"_I _don't deserve to be _your _copy?" Exe puffed. "Just listen to yourself, pal. You're so worked up you can't even come up with witty comebacks anymore."

Growling, a forced grin twisted on Sonic's face, and the hedgehog gurgled, "I can't believe it..." Nervously laughing, the hedgehog pulled himself to his feet. "I can't believe it... Hea-ha-ha... I'm getting _lectured _on my jokes by some _maniac _in a _computer _who's snatched up all my buddies and expects me to make a joke about it? Ha-ha-ha..."

Sonic threw a punch at himself, but his fist fell through static, like a hologram, and his doppelganger grinned, his head bobbing with laughter at the pathetic attempt.

"You need to loosen up, buddy," Sonic-exe said, eying the hedgehog still punching through his projection with shaking laughter, who eventually crumpled into a heap at the file's feet, sobbing. "Aw, what's the matter, _me?"_

"Why..._wh-why..." _ True Blue wanted to sob to the creature. "Why would...why would you do this...at all?" The reddening green eyes met the glowing red-on-black eyes, and Sonic coughed a bit, but nothing came out.

"I...I...I just wanna go home..." he coughed out, sniffling. "Just-just wanna go home... Just want every-everyone-everyone to go home...I don't wanna be here anymore..." He broke out into stifled whimpering, shaking, clamping his eyes shut, ankles tapping together as if he'd wake up back in Kansas with everyone around him smiling and okay, and that this was all just a bad dream.

Sonic-exe gave the hog three pats on the head, and the crying hedgehog snapped his head up and his eyes open, seeing a faint smile on the hedgehog's lips.

"Now where have I heard that before?" he muttered, but then met eyes with himself and grinned. "Aw, don't feel bad, me. You've got my word I'll let you guys go when you get all back together again."

"Why-why'd you do that?!" Sonic sharply barked. "I had-had Eggman and Knuckles and Rouge and Charmy and-and-and Amy! I just needed the rest of my friends,-that was _a dirty trick!"_

Like a kid snickering in the principal's office after being told how teacher A had landed in such a humorously humiliating way, the executable file giggled. "Sorry. I couldn't help it. Heh-ha! I just didn't think it was fair how fast Egghead and the others found you. I mean, _c'mon, _didn't you think it was too fast?"

Sonic's quivering muzzle twisted into a smirk. "Of all the people I expect to hear _that _from..." he said, lowering his gaze, _"I'm _the last person on that list."

"But ya gotta admit it, there's no suspense in having them find ya without a challenge."

"You're right," Sonic realized as he got to his feet again. "There was no adrenaline in that, was there?"

"Sometimes ya just take things a bit slower," the bloody hog agreed. "Shad didn't get that." Sonic-exe tsk-tsked as he shook his head. "You can't jump to the end of a good movie, ya know. You gotta stick to it till the end, am I right?"

"Shadow... that's right..." Sonic sighed. "How'd he get caught by you?"

"Always second best," his double puffed. "He's not a team player, either. I bet as soon as he found his girlfriend he'd Chaos-Control his way out without so much as a care. I never thought he had a heart big enough to save the girl, but he obviously didn't have enough room to want to round up everybody else."

Sonic growled at the idea of the hedgehog condemning everybody else just to save that _one hedgehog _as fast as possible. It sounded so characteristic, so _typical. _After all, when they were in the Twilight Cage and that merchant made that strange remark confusing Sonic for somebody else, it was apparent that Shadow was moonlighting, having another agenda which he would gladly abandon the more current one for and leave the rest of the crew hanging. Sonic's fist clenched and his eyebrow twitched furiously. He'd have to pull a Knuckles on that angsty-faking jerk when he saw him last, whether or not they were still in the computer world.

But he'd have to thank him afterward for giving him a new motivation to find him. Punching Shadow in the face would be a bonus for finding everybody else. "All right _me," _Sonic said, grinning, suddenly empowered with a strong adrenaline surge, "I'm ready to find our friends again, and this time, you better play fair!"

"Fooled ya once," Exe-Sonic shrugged. "Not my fault if you fall for the same thing again. You'll just have to keep starting over until you give up or until I get sick of taking you back to square one."

"Trust me," Sonic puffed, feeling like he could blow the sun out as he brushed his nose with his thumb, "now that I know all your tricks, there's no way I'd be able to miss 'em. I just hope you have more of a challenge for me!"

_"AHAhahahahahaha! _Now we're talkin'!" Red eyes glowing with glee as his pointed smile stretched across his cheeks, the file snickered and faded into red static. "May the best Hedgehog win!"

* * *

"Oh, Sonic!" Amy whimpered as she weaved her way through the overgrown brambles, Piko Piko Hammer in hand. After Sonic was warped away into red static by that awful Sonic-computer-game thing, she'd clamped her eyes shut, afraid of the creature trapping her and everybody else. She was more worried about the _real _Sonic though; Being sent back to the start after nearly drowning and choking on toxic chemicals for his friends...

"I hope he's still strong enough to get us all out of here..." she mumbled as her tattered dress lost a bigger piece on a persistent thorn. "That bad Sonic better not get him killed!"

A scream split the air, definitely female, but Amy'd never heard it before. Sonic had said other people beside his friends had been trapped, too. Maybe that was one of the poor victims, and that other Sonic was toying with her, poor thing.

"Sonic'd said it was too late for them," the pink hedgehog murmured. "So no matter if I help them, there's no way they're getting out..."

"_SHADOW!"_

Amy spun on her heels and raced through the foliage, batting thick branches away with her hammer. She came to a small gray clearing, panting and spinning around. Another shriek sounded, and the pink girl hurdled over a fallen twisted tree, and the booming laugh of Sonic-Exe brought her to a screeching halt.

Heh-hehheheheheheheh

"_Sorry, Amy," _Sonic's voice said from above. _"I can't let you save _that one. _I have something _very _special planned for her."_

_Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh_

Amy gasped and approached the barren earth where the dead grass had imprints that resembled someone spinning around and then falling to their knees. The hand shape was tapery, and long, hands of pretty delicate fingers that couldn't defend themselves if they could.

The hand of a girl down the street.

* * *

"What's going on?" Tom wondered aloud as he noted how it had been internally about two sleepless restless days since he and Kyle had been subjected to the antics of their demonic captor.

"What do you mean?" his friend asked.

"He's been too quiet for too long... Something's not right." Kyle grumbled, as if Tom was jinxing them. The brunette mumbled about the game, but the blonde shook his head.

"Where's Kris?" he wondered. "Let's find him." And the young man began to set off in a direction; any direction, as long as they didn't go backwards, since going back provoked the horrific god of their domain. If you went far enough in a certain direction, you would crossover into another zone. Staying in a zone for too long would summon the beast.

"No, no no..." Kyle panted. "Kris is a nut case, man, you can't-"

"Are you coming or not?" Tom called afterwards, and hurried footsteps soon caught up to him.

* * *

Tails looked for four times before racing to the next cover. The computer-Sonic probably had known what'd happened to him last time, so the little fox stayed far away from any sort of abandoned lab-looking places. He'd have to make-do with the tools he had.

He noticed how _real _the stages felt and looked, and that they weren't as intangible as the being that created them. Why was that? Perhaps the Sonic he kept encountering was merely a projection that the game itself had made? Or was the Sonic just as elusive as he'd been with the Knuckles on stage two?

Whatever the reason, the Sonic's particles clearly were data; perhaps warped or glitched in such a way that they had an influence on the surrounding environment of the game. If this Sonic had originally been a Sonic sprite in a normal Sonic game, he would have different properties than an enemy or a stage. Had the Sonic been hacked as the genius had assumed when he encountered the title screen's split second change, then wherever the changes had been made, that would have created a distortion with his sprite. Similarly, if he was given different commands-

"Commands?" he heard a familiar voice whisper, then get a little louder, "That's it!"

Tails gasped as Tails-the one from the first level- popped out. He put his hand to his mouth and throat to make sure he still had his voice as the smiling one kept going.

"If Kris gave Sonic new commands, and he gave the game different properties, both Sonic's and the game's distortions would become so twisted that one would overlap into the other!"

For the real Tails, he perked up with a click. "That's... that's right!" he said in a hushed voice. "If whoever hacked the game changed both of them, then whatever Sonic touched would take in some of his distortion..!"

Standing up, the real Miles Prower exchanged a nervous smile with himself. "Hello, me," he said.

"Hiya, Tails," the other one said. "Nice to meet you."


End file.
